This identity, when juxtaposed with the treatment Naruto had suffered over the years, created a contrast that was too ironic and too cruel.
It even made her, the narrator, feel an unspeakable shame.
How could she tell this child that his father was a hero who sacrificed himself for the Village, yet the Village treated the hero's only orphan like this?
Tsunade did not directly answer the question about his father, but continued describing that night in a sorrowful tone:
"Naruto, listen. In Konoha Year 48, your mother gave birth to you. But on that day, external enemies invaded, and they took the opportunity to... extract the Nine-Tailed sealed inside your mother."
Hearing "extract the Nine-Tailed," Naruto didn't fully understand the specific meaning, but instinctively felt a great danger.
Tsunade's voice carried a hint of reluctance: "And once a Jinchuriki loses their Tailed Beast... there is only one outcome..."
She did not finish her sentence, but the implication was like the coldest of judgments!
Death?
Mom... was it because the Nine-Tailed was extracted on the day I was born... that's why... This realization struck Naruto like a bolt from the blue!
He felt a buzzing sound in his brain, and an indescribable torrent of violent emotions—a mixture of profound grief, rage, self-reproach, and destructive desire—erupted from his heart like a volcano!
"Ugh ah ah ah—!!!"
Naruto let out a guttural roar, his eyes instantly turning scarlet, and a dark red Chakra, filled with hatred and brutality, suddenly burst forth from around him like uncontrolled flames!
His skin began to glow an ominous red, and his teeth sharpened!
The Nine-Tailed's Chakra began to leak due to Naruto's extreme emotional fluctuations!
"Naruto!"
Jiraiya, who had been prepared, changed his expression drastically, and a shout infused with Chakra boomed like thunder, attempting to awaken his reason.
At the same time, his figure moved like lightning, instantly appearing beside Naruto, and a large hand bearing a powerful Sealing Jutsu pressed forcefully onto Naruto's rapidly heaving abdomen.
"Calm down! This isn't your fault!" Jiraiya's voice was steady and strong; his powerful Chakra acted like a gentle dam, temporarily blocking the Nine-Tailed's Chakra from rampaging further.
Under the powerful external intervention, the boiling dark red Chakra around Naruto slowly receded like a tide, and his scarlet eyes returned to a clear blue.
Under Jiraiya's calming influence, although Naruto temporarily suppressed the Nine-Tailed Chakra, the immense grief and urgent need for answers made him profoundly sad.
Naruto lifted his tear-stained face, looking towards Tsunade with blue eyes full of tears and pleading, urging her while sobbing:
"Granny Tsunade... please... please continue... I beg you..."
Looking at the child desperately holding back a breakdown and obsessively seeking the truth, Tsunade sighed deeply, deeply, in her heart.
She knew the final curtain had to be drawn.
Tsunade's voice carried a heavy sense of calm, as if every word bore the weight of history:
"Your father... on that night, in order to protect the Village... he chose to... reseal the rampaging Nine-Tailed."
She paused, meeting Naruto's gaze directly, and spoke the earth-shattering name:
"And the location of the sealing... was within you."
"After completing the sealing, he... also exhausted himself and sacrificed his life."
Naruto's breathing suddenly stopped, his heart felt as if it were being violently squeezed by an invisible hand.
Sacrifice... Dad also... died... it was to seal the Nine-Tailed... it was to protect the Village... The immense amount of information left his mind blank.
However, Tsunade was not finished.
She delivered the final, most devastating blow, her voice echoing clearly throughout the office:
"And your father... was Konoha's Fourth Hokage..."
"Minato Namikaze."
Minato Namikaze.
This name, like the final peal of thunder, exploded deep within Naruto's soul!
"My... my father was... the Hokage?"
Naruto murmured to himself, his voice barely audible.
The expression on Naruto's face was completely stunned, a blankness interwoven with extreme shock, bewilderment, and a sense of incomprehensible absurdity.
Instinctively, he abruptly turned his head, his gaze piercing through the Hokage Office window, fixated on the distant Hokage Rock!
On that massive cliff face, the busts of the successive Hokage stood solemnly.
The figure he had looked up to since childhood, viewing him as the Village's highest symbol and one of its greatest heroes... the face he saw countless times when he pulled pranks by vandalizing the Hokage Rock... the goal he dreamed of becoming and striving to surpass... was actually... his... Dad?
"Dad..."
He was actually the Hokage's son... but what kind of life had he lived all these years?
"But... why?"
Naruto lifted his head, his tear-blurred blue eyes filled with pain and confusion, and he looked at Tsunade and Jiraiya, his voice trembling as he asked the most critical question:
"Why... did he seal the Nine-Tailed inside me? Am I not... his son?"
Why did his father choose for him to bear this pain?
Why did he impose this fate on his newborn self, knowing what a Jinchuriki would suffer?
Was this truly a father?
This question instantly left Tsunade speechless.
In her heart, the people she cared about would always outweigh the Village.
She could neither understand nor agree with sacrificing her own child's future to protect the Village, forcing him to bear such a heavy curse.
If it had been her, she definitely would have made a completely different choice.
But in the hearts of people like Minato Namikaze, and even Jiraiya beside her, the weight of the "Village" often outweighed the "individual" or even "family."
This was the cruel side of the "will of fire" they believed in.
She could not judge the right or wrong of this choice, because it touched upon a fundamental difference in philosophy.
The Village is made up of people, so of course, people are important!
A Village that protects its people, of course, the Village is important!
This is the difference in how everyone views the Village!
Watching Tsunade's silence, Jiraiya sighed deeply.
He knew that this question had to be answered by him.
"Naruto," Jiraiya's voice was low and serious, carrying the weight of experience, "This is... the responsibility of the Hokage."
He looked at Naruto, his gaze profound:
"The Hokage is not the Hokage of one person, nor the Hokage of one family. He is the Shadow of the entire Konoha Village."
"When the Village faces the crisis of destruction, the Hokage must make... the choice most beneficial to the Village, even if that choice is... immensely painful."
"Protecting the Village, protecting the greater 'family' within the Village—this is the responsibility and resolve the Hokage must bear."